Why I love volunteering - notes from France

Even as one half of me struggling to describe my experience at France, my other half was constantly enjoying the memories and skimming through photos, contemplating what I have learnt and gone through those beautiful two weeks. France and Paris - what could one possibly think when we hear those words - love, romance, life and lifestyle. The experience at France completely filled my expectations of a developed country. But more importantly it helped me to de-condition myself at many instances.

PC - Bharath

Place

Arriving at end of September in France means winter is about to kick in anytime. South of France is a magnificent blend of geological wonders and rich French culture. I was at Laragne, a small town at the region ALPS. Laragne is dotted with farms, churches, markets and various adventure activities such a paragliding, off road cycling, many good climbs for short hikes and treks. One can actually feel the French side of the France here.

Camp

With all excitements I was introduced to my fellow volunteers for the two weeks assignment. The volunteers are from all over the world (South Korea, Russia, Mexico, France, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland) with a mixture of personalities and skillsets but united by the interest towards volunteering. We were together on a two week mission  to renovate the century old castle located at the top of the hill through indigenous & eco- friendly method. We were part of this project to support to ministry of culture and patrimony to rebuild the castle and promote awareness about the history of French culture among the locales.

Everyday begins with an adventure, walking the trails along the hill to reach our work site on the top.
PC - Bharath

PC - Bharath

PC -  Bharath

 Work site on the top of the hill. Clouds brushing the surrounding hills.

A short article about our volunteering work published in the local newspaper. 

Camp life

The mood changes automatically when you are back from work at the camp site. A sense of friendship and camaraderie kicks in often for many reasons. Every volunteer will get an opportunity to work with every volunteer for whatever time period you are there at camp. It may be cooking, washing utensils other admin that is to be done to run the two week camp smoothly. It is a collective life. Every other decision is taken democratically and it is made sure none of the volunteer interest in affected during this process. Our camp leader also make sure that every evening is spent productively by engaging in any group activity or exploring the town nearby.

Bharath, one of the volunteer from India explains about the Indian food to Mayor of Laragne, prepared on the occasion of International dinner night. 

I opened up so much. There was no fear of judgement. Everybody here is new and that make you feel to be yourself. Just being myself for next two weeks.

My free time was spent exploring the streets, admiring churches and tasting cheese  wine and most importantly writing & reading. 

What I am taking home

Leadership 

Leaders at the camp showed much respect and care on the volunteers. Amille was the technical leader of the camp. She demonstrated on how to handle all the tools safely with care. Few important highlights and lessons I personally noticed and learnt are: 

• The work of a camp leader is to manage the work and not the volunteer. Hence take good care of your health.
•  Whom do you think will win when it comes stone vs fingers. You know it of course it is stone. Hence be careful when you are on the field working with tools & stones.
• When it comes to work there are no gender. There is no conception like only men could do all the manual hard labor work or women supposed to all kitchen work. Hence everybody does everything here.
• It is always okay to reach out to people for help when you find something difficult to do.

Volunteering has taught me many things. But I also realized It is also important to be realistic when you think to apply for volunteering. One volunteer's visit to a country cannot change much for the country. But as a volunteer I can say with all confidence that volunteering can bring many changes within self. It affected my personality at various level. One among them is being a more responsible person towards this society and the little work we do. However responsibilities of a volunteer are often underestimated. It maybe because of multiple reasons such as it is unpaid and most volunteering programs are short term. But volunteering should be treated with same seriousness as a typical job. Objective here should be to learn during the short period and give our best to the community we work with. Volunteering cannot change everything in the community, but it has the potential to foster good relation with people from diverse culture and change our understanding about the world.